Tennessee's Baseball All-Time Dream Team
What would a dream team roster look like for major league players born in Tennessee?
Issue #93
This is the seventh article in a new series I’ve started where I’m creating all-time dream teams for players born in each of the fifty US states. I’ll be publishing each write-up on the anniversary date that the particular state joined the union. So far I’ve covered Maryland, Louisiana, Minnesota, South Carolina, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.
Next up are two in one day, the neighboring states of Kentucky and Tennessee. I covered Kentucky in my previous article, as they joined the union on June 1, 1792. Tennessee did so on the same date, but four years later, in 1796 (according to Wikipedia.)
[Note: I’m creating these all-time dream teams based on the birthplace data available at baseball-reference.com. I realize this might mean some players will appear for a state’s all-time dream that seems odd, e.g., a player who was born in one state but lived there only briefly, while then spending most of his youth, or especially critical years playing baseball in high school in another state. So I’m giving that caveat to this 50-article project at the outset.]
Here is the all-time dream team I came up with for players born in Tennessee:
Like the other US State dream teams I’ve created so far, this one has some solid positions and star players, but also some positions that are relatively lacking. The only Hall of Famer is the great Negro League star Turkey Stearnes. A left-handed hitting centerfielder who played from 1917-1940, based on the stats we have available at baseball-reference.com Stearnes led his league in HR five times, triples four times, RBI twice, and batting average twice—including a high of .390 in 1929. Overall, his career slash line was .348/.417/.616 with a 177 OPS+.
I suspect there will soon be some other Hall of Famers on this roster, starting with 1B Todd Helton who has progressed in his vote totals from 16.5% in 2019 to 72.2% last year—so he is almost at the 75% needed for election. I also suspect OF Vada Pinson could one day be included in the Hall, and clearly active superstar RF Mookie Betts is on a HOF path as well.
The most depth on this roster was in CF, where not only do we have Stearnes and Pinson, but also Steve Finley with his 304 HR and 320 SB, and Clyde Milan who played his entire career for the Washington Senators and swiped 495 bases including leading the AL with 88 in 1912 and 75 in 1913. Because of this crowd, I listed four-time All-Star Ben Chapman as the top LF, even though he played a bit more in CF (and even RF) than in LF.
Helton is the biggest star amongst the infielders I included, with four-time batting champion Bill Madlock the best at 3B, and Jim Gilliam and Phil Garner available at both 3B and 2B. I found three catcher candidates in Tim McCarver, Ed Bailey, and Rick Dempsey, leaving SS the clear weak spot on this roster. Zack Cozart was an all-star and had his best season in 2017 when he hit .297 with 24 HR, but there weren’t many candidates for the backup SS spot, so I had to go with Bob Fisher who played for four teams from 1912-1919, but only got into 100+ games twice.
Starting lineups for this all-time dream team could look like this:
Against RHP:
Mookie Betts RF (R)
Vada Pinson LF (L)
Turkey Stearnes CF (L)
Todd Helton 1B (L)
Steve Finley DH (L)
Bill Madlock 3B (R)
Jim Gilliam 2B (S)
Tim McCarver / Ed Bailey C (L)
Zack Cozart SS (R)
Against LHP:
Ben Chapman LF (R)
Turkey Stearnes CF (L)
Mookie Betts RF (R)
Todd Helton 1B (L)
Vada Pinson DH (L)
Bill Madlock 3B (R)
Phil Garner 2B (R)
Rick Dempsey C (R)
Zack Cozart SS (R)
You could arrange players in the first five slots in a variety of ways, but I elected to keep Helton constant as the cleanup hitter. There were a lot of lefties, so I kept Pinson in both lineups, with Chapman and Finley getting in the mix in LF and DH.
During his career Bill Madlock most often batted third, but on this dream team he needs to bat sixth (which happens to have been his second most frequent lineup position.) I think Gilliam and Garner make a good platoon at 2B, and the three catchers can split the duties behind the plate with the lefty hitters McCarver and Bailey playing against RHP, and Dempsey getting in the games against LHP.
As for the pitchers, I think the ace of the staff here is lifetime Detroit Tigers hurler Tommy Bridges. From 1930-46 he compiled a 194-138 (.584) record, 3.57 ERA, and 126 ERA+. A six-time All-Star, he led the AL in strikeouts twice and won 20+ games three times.
I went with David Price for the second spot, given his 157-82 (.657) record, 3.32 ERA, and 123 ERA+. A five-time All-Star, he won the AL Cy Young Award in 2012 and came in second in the voting twice. I’ve not heard an official retirement announcement yet, but it seems he at least isn’t going to pitch in 2023.
Next up is Noodles Hahn, who had the distinction of being the last pitcher to throw a Major League no-hitter in the 19th century and then the first to do so in the 20th century. He only played eight seasons, as arm trouble led to early retirement at the age of 27 after he had won 20+ games four times with a 2.55 ERA and 132 ERA+. An even earlier pitching star, Bob Caruthers, also had a short career that ended before the age of 30. Pitching in the majors from 1884-1892, he posted two 40-win seasons and retired with an impressive 218-99 record (.688), a 2.83 ERA, and a 122 ERA+.
After those four you could debate how to rank the other pitchers I included on this dream team roster. For the fifth spot in this fantasy rotation I went with R.A. Dickey, who was up and down between the majors and minors into his mid-30s, when he finally mastered a hard knuckleball and became, for a brief time, one of the best pitchers in baseball. In 2012 he went 20-6 with a league-leading 230 strikeouts, taking home the NL Cy Young Award in his only season as an All-Star. He wasn’t as effective in subsequent years, but continued pitching until retiring at age 42 in 2017. Others I included on this dream team staff include Fred Toney (1911-23) who won 20+ games twice, three-time All-Star Claude Osteen (1957-75), Red Lucas (1923-38) who led the NL in complete games three times, and current stars Robbie Ray, who won the AL Cy Young Award in in 2021, and Sonny Gray, a two-time All-Star who is off to a great start in 2023 at the age of 33.
For the bullpen, I found only one dominating, closer-type pitcher in Bryan Harvey (1987-95). His career was fairly short, but he retired with a 2.49 ERA, 162 ERA+, and a 10.4 SO/9 rate. He was an All-Star twice, including in 1991 when he posted 46 saves with a 1.60 ERA.
I included four other relievers, starting with Greg McMichael (1993-2000) who had 19 and 21 saves in his first two seasons and then became a solid setup man posting a career 3.25 ERA and 131 ERA+. David Weathers had a long career (1991-2009), including some work as a starter early in his career, and then time as a closer later on, including in 2007 when he locked down 33 saves for the Reds. Chuck Taylor pitched for four teams in the majors from 1969 to 1976, posting a solid 3.07 ERA and 123 ERA+. And lastly I included Rick Honeycutt as a mixed starter/reliever. From 1977 to 1987 he started in 268 games and made two All-Star teams, and then became an effective reliever for many years before finally retiring in 1997.
All data is from Baseball-Reference.com, and also their subscription service Stathead.com. If you are a big sports fan, be sure to check out the latest features at Stathead and the Sports Reference family of sites. The state map, flag, flower, and bird images are from Wikipedia.
Did you know? I wrote a book with the same title as this Substack newsletter / blog: Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises. It was published in early 2019, by ACTA Sports, the publisher of the annual Bill James Handbook and other popular titles. You can learn more about it at www.NowTakingTheField.com, or buy directly at Amazon and other booksellers.
